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Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift

Biography

Country music star Taylor Swift showed all the signs of her future career as a singer/songwriter when she was still a small girl growing up in Pennsylvania. Creative from the beginning, Swift was singing for local audiences by the time she was ten, and won a national poetry contest in the fourth grade for her poem "Monster in My Closet." By 12, the young artist was singing, writing songs, playing the 12-string guitar, and shopping demos around Nashville, hoping to score a record contract.

Within a few years, Swift's family relocated to the Nashville area so that the aspiring performer could pursue her career full-time. She was eventually offered a development deal with RCA, but rejected it when it didn't allow for her to record her own songs. Swift would be rewarded for her stalwartness, however, when she was signed by Big Machine Records a short time later. She was also hired in as the youngest staff songwriter ever to work for Sony/ATV Tree publishing.

Swift released a self-titled album in 2006, and it became an immediate hit, soon setting chart records that put her in league with established acts like the Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood. The 17-year-old became a household name, appearing on magazine covers, taking home awards, and joining the ranks of other young recording artists like Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. Swift eventually dated Jonas Brothers singer Joe Jonas, and appeared in the brothers' concert film Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience following the release of her equally chart-topping sophomore album, Fearless, in 2008. He had his biggest non-SNL hit to date when he was one of three regular guys looking to kill their Horrible Bosses in 2011, and that same year he co-starred with Owen Wilson in Hall Pass, and starred in the indie comedy A Good Old Fashioned Orgy. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi

Taylor Swift

Born on December 13, 1989, in Wyomissing, PA; daughter of Scott (a Christmas tree farmer and stockbroker) and Andrea Swift. Education: Home-schooled for high school coursework after attending schools in Pottstown, PA, Wyomissing, PA, and Hendersonville, TN.

Sang National Anthem at Philadelphia 76ers game at age 11; signed at age 14 as staff songwriter by Sony Tree publishing house, Nashville; signed as performer by Big Machine label; released Taylor Swift, toured with Rascal Flatts, 2006; toured with George Strait, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill, 2007; released Fearless, 2008.

Awards: Country Music Association, Horizon Award, Academy of Country Music, Top New Female Vocalist, both 2008.

Country singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, in the words of the New Yorker magazine, is a prodigy. With an uncanny knack for turning ordinary teenage experiences into fresh country songs that appeal to all ages, she was not just the biggest new star in country music in 2007 and 2008 but among the genre's biggest stars of any age. Beginning her formal country career as a staff songwriter at 14, Swift seemed equipped to become much more than a teen star who flamed out as an adult. "I write songs about my life," she told George Hatza of Pennsylvania's Reading Eagle. "When my life changes, so will my music. It's as simple as that. I tell stories."

Taylor Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, near the city of Reading. She has one sibling, a younger brother named Austin. Swift's family operated a Christmas tree farm, and she was steered toward outdoor pursuits. "I had her sitting on a pony when she was nine months old," Swift's mother, Andrea, told Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly. "If my dream had gone well, she'd be in a horse show right now." Swift's father, Scott, sold stocks on the side. The only obvious forerunner of Swift's musical talent was her grandmother Marjorie Finlay, an opera singer.

That talent showed itself early: when the family went to see an animated musical film from the Walt Disney studios, Swift would emerge from the theater singing the words of all the songs correctly. At age 11 she sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a Philadelphia 76ers game. Some tough experiences during her pre-teen years fired up a layer of creativity to go with Swift's talent. As a child she attended the academically competitive Wyndcroft School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, but then switched to public schools in Wyomissing. Although it was her hometown, she didn't know any of her fellow students, and she was terrified. Swift began to catch on to the storytelling aspect of country songs, and when she was given a guitar she began to channel her feelings into songs of her own, practicing the guitar until her fingers bled.

One of her future hits, "The Outside," was written when she was only 12. "I wrote that about the scariest feeling I've ever felt: going to school, walking down the hall, looking at all those faces, and not knowing who you're gonna talk to that day," she told Willman. "People always ask, How did you have the courage to walk up to record labels when you were 12 or 13? It's because I could never feel the kind of rejection in the music industry that I felt in middle school." Swift's parents quickly realized that they had someone special on their hands. They sold their farm when she was 13 and moved the family to Hendersonville, Tennessee, outside Nashville.

Swift didn't have much luck as a singer at first, approaching labels with a demo on which she sang Dolly Parton and Dixie Chicks songs. But songwriting was another story. The following year, she was signed as a staff songwriter by the prestigious Sony Tree music publisher in Nashville. The environment at Hendersonville High School might have provided other students merely with gossip fodder, but for Swift it was the raw material for new songs. "There was always some drama I could write songs about," she told Eileen Finan of People. "Like my friend getting broken up with and bawling her eyes out or a guy being completely immature."

Swift had a knack, above all, for putting young love into words with an accuracy far beyond her years. Her first single, "Tim McGraw," wove references to an unnamed song by that country superstar with vivid imagery of "a boy in a Chevy truck / that had a tendency of gettin' stuck / on backroads at night." In "Our Song" she wrote, "Our song is the slamming screen door, sneakin' out late, tapping on your window." Swift was soon performing at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe on 21st Avenue South. Music Row executive Scott Borchetta heard her there and signed her to his Big Machine label. In the summer of 2006 he released "Tim McGraw," and almost from the start the 16-year-old Taylor Swift was a star.

Swift's debut album, Taylor Swift, was released at the end of 2006, and she went on tour to support it as an opening act with country stars who could draw arena-sized crowds: the band Rascal Flatts in 2006, and the impressive quintet of George Strait, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill the following year. A five-foot, eleven-inch blonde with a dry, grainy voice that fell naturally into the country tradition, she was a compelling performer who incorporated songs by non-country performers such as Eminem and Beyoncé into her shows. But, asked by Hatza whether she thought of herself more as a singer or a songwriter, she promptly replied, "I love lyrics more than notes. A song is a favorite song not because the singer can hit and hold a high note but because of the words, their meaning."

Taylor Swift was an impressive debut, topping the Billboard magazine country albums chart and cracking the pop top five. Five consecutive singles from the album landed in the country top ten, a first in the history of the genre, and "Our Song" spent six weeks at the top. Swift had songwriting help from Liz Rose on some of the songs, but "Our Song" was entirely her own, and it made her the youngest person ever to write and sing a number-one country single. The Taylor Swift album, in a time of sharply declining album sales, was certified triple platinum and went on to sell more than 3.5 million copies. In 2007 Swift took home the Country Music Association's Horizon Award and the Top New Female Vocalist Award from the rival Academy of Country Music.

Swift released Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in 2007, and then an EP, Beautiful Eyes, containing acoustic versions of some of her songs. In late 2007 she began working on her sophomore album. She approached the problem with typical confidence and groundedness, telling Joey Guerra of the Houston Chronicle that "I feel kind of bad saying I don't feel it, but I'm not feeling pressure. I've been writing these songs since I was 12. I've got, like, 40 that I want to put on the next record." That confidence held up through a brush with tabloid publicity as Swift was romantically linked to Joe Jonas of the pop group the Jonas Brothers, was dumped by phone, and faced a pregnancy rumor that she categorically denied.

Swift's core fan base of teenage girls continued to grow, and there was pent-up demand by the time she issued her second album, Fearless, in November of 2008. The album continued to shatter sales records, making its debut atop the Billboard 200 pop albums chart and doing extremely well in the digital download market, historically weaker for country music. Fearless, which Swift co-produced, was the fourth-biggest digital debut of all time, behind albums by Coldplay, Jack Johnson, and Kanye West. Music from her MySpace page had been streamed more than 120 million times. The single "White Horse" made its debut at number 13 on the pop top 100; it was Swift's sixth pop top 20 debut for the year, exceeding the Jonas Brothers' record of five.

The songwriting on Fearless was, if anything, even stronger than that on Swift's debut. Among the hits that emerged from the early days of the album's release was "Fifteen," with its understated line, "Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind, and we both cried." Swift had no shortage of ideas for the future. "Later on there will definitely be a huge temptation for me to make an alt-country record, something edgier and a little darker," she told Joe Caramanica of the New York Times. There were also offers to appear in television situation comedies, and acting seemed to be on the horizon.

Taylor Swift

Biography

Taylor Swift became one of country's brightest (and youngest) faces in 2006, when the 16-year-old released her first album. Although new to the American public, Swift had been performing since her preteen years in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where she first took the stage as part of a children's theater troupe. Encouraged by the troupe's manager to pursue music instead, Swift began performing karaoke songs at a local mall, with open-mike gigs following shortly thereafter. She sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" before a Philadelphia 76ers game at the age of 11; the following year, she began practicing the guitar several hours each day, modeling her early songwriting attempts on crossover artists like Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks. Swift's parents realized her dedication and began making regular visits to Nashville, Tennessee, where Swift could perform casually and meet with songwriters in the area. The family then decided to move to an outlying Nashville suburb, which accelerated Swift's career.

While performing at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Swift caught the eye of music industry veteran Scott Borchetta, who signed her to his newly formed label. Swift joined the roster at Big Machine Records and released her debut single, "Tim McGraw," in August 2006. The song drew upon her experience as a lovelorn high-school student, a theme that Swift revisited throughout her self-titled debut album. Released in late 2006, Taylor Swift catapulted the young songwriter to stardom, spawned a handful of hits (five consecutive Top Ten singles, a new record for a female solo artist), and earned multi-platinum status. Swift also received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, an award she ultimately lost to Amy Winehouse. Two subsequent EPs -- Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection and Beautiful Eyes -- helped maintain Swift's popularity while she worked on another album, which arrived in November 2008.

Swift's debut record made her a queen in the country world, but 2008's Fearless positioned her as the year's biggest star of any genre. The sophomore album went gold during its first week of release; combined with the sales of its predecessor, it also made Swift the highest-grossing artist of 2008. The accolades increased in 2009, when Fearless went multi-platinum and took home two ACM awards, five American Music Awards, five CMAs, two CMTs, and a controversial trophy at the MTV Video Music Awards (Kanye West infamously stormed the stage during Swift's acceptance speech to throw his support to Beyoncé, claiming she deserved the award instead). Meanwhile, "You Belong with Me" peaked at number two on the pop charts, officially cementing Swift's status as a crossover artist. By the time 2009 drew to a close, Fearless had sold nearly six million copies in America alone, making it the year's best-selling album.

Swift kicked off the new year by contributing two songs to the Valentine's Day soundtrack. She also made a cameo in the film, playing the high-school sweetheart of her real-life boyfriend, Taylor Lautner. Swift then focused her attention on wrapping up her third album, Speak Now, which she'd written entirely on her own throughout the two previous years. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200 chart, and by August 2011 had sold over five and a half million copies worldwide; it would later win two Grammy Awards for its single "Mean." That same year, Swift released her first live album, World Tour Live: Speak Now.

Swift decided to turn her fourth album, Red, into something of a sonic departure, working with Max Martin -- best known for his collaborations with Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys -- for its lead single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." Its pop sheen signaled a departure, as did the presence of such collaborators as Dan Wilson, Mark Foster, and Butch Walker. Red was released on October 22, 2012. ~ Andrew Leahey, Rovi

In addition to her music career, Swift has appeared as an actress in the ensemble comedy Valentine's Day (2010), the animated film The Lorax (2012) and The Giver (2014). As a philanthropist, Swift supports arts education, children's literacy, natural disaster relief, LGBT anti-discrimination activities and charities for sick children.

Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in West Reading, Pennsylvania.[1] Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, is a Merrill Lynch financial adviser.[2][3] Scott was raised in Pennsylvania and is the descendant of three generations of bank presidents.[4][5] Her mother, Andrea (née Finlay), is a homemaker who previously worked as a mutual fund marketing executive.[6] Andrea, though American, spent the first 10 years of her life in Singapore, before returning to the U.S. and settling in Texas—her own father was an engineer who worked throughout Southeast Asia.[5] Swift grew up with one sibling, her younger brother, Austin.[7]

During early adolescence, Swift became interested in musical theater and performed in numerous Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions, including Bye Bye Birdie.[18] Swift also traveled regularly to Broadway for vocal and acting lessons.[19] Swift then turned her attention to country music—Shania Twain's songs made her "want to just run around the block four times and daydream about everything."[20] She spent her weekends performing at local festivals, coffeehouses, fairs, karaoke contests, garden clubs, Boy Scout meetings and sporting events.[5][6][21] At the age of 11, after many failed attempts,[22] Swift won a local talent competition and was given the opportunity to appear as the opening act for Charlie Daniels.[23]

After watching a Behind the Music episode about Faith Hill, Swift felt sure that she needed to go to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a music career.[24] At the age of 11, she traveled with her mother to Nashville to submit a demo, of Dolly Parton and Dixie Chicks karaoke covers, with record labels along Music Row.[25] She received label rejections and realized that "everyone in that town wanted to do what I wanted to do. So, I kept thinking to myself, I need to figure out a way to be different."[26]

At the age of 12, Swift was taught how to play three chords on a guitar, inspiring her to write her first song, "Lucky You."[27] She had previously won a national poetry contest with a poem titled "Monster in My Closet," but now began to focus on songwriting.[28] In 2003, Swift and her parents started working with New York-based music manager Dan Dymtrow. With Dymtrow's help, Swift modelled for Abercrombie & Fitch as part of their "Rising Stars" campaign, had an original song included on a Maybelline compilation CD, and attended meetings with major record labels.[29] After performing original songs at an RCA Records showcase, the eighth-grader was given an artist development deal and began making frequent trips to Nashville with her mother.[30] When Swift was fourteen, her father transferred to the Nashville office of Merrill Lynch and the family relocated to a lakefront house in Hendersonville, Tennessee:[4]

My parents took all the pressure off by saying, "We're just moving because we love the area, so don't worry." They knew nothing about the industry and had no involvement in entertainment, but I was obsessed with it and so they did their research and read up about it to help me in every way they could. They're amazing people.[31]

In Tennessee, Swift attended Hendersonville High School for her freshman and sophomore years.[32] Later, to accommodate her touring schedule, Swift transferred to the Aaron Academy, a private Christian school which offered homeschooling services. She maintained a 4.0 grade average and earned her high school diploma in 2008, having completed her final two years of course work in 12 months.[33][34]

Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 14. In 2004,[35] she signed an artist development deal with RCA Records and was the youngest songwriter to sign a publishing deal with Sony/ATV.[36] Swift proceeded to work with experienced Music Row songwriters such as Troy Verges, Brett Beavers, Brett James, Mac McAnally and The Warren Brothers.[37][38] She eventually formed a lasting working relationship with Liz Rose. Swift saw Rose performing at an RCA songwriter event and suggested that they write together.[39] They began meeting for two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school.[40] Rose has said that the sessions were "some of the easiest I've ever done. Basically, I was just her editor. She'd write about what happened in school that day. She had such a clear vision of what she was trying to say. And she'd come in with the most incredible hooks."[41] Swift also began recording demos with producer Nathan Chapman.[39]

After performing at a BMI Songwriter's Circle showcase at The Bitter End, New York, in 2004,[38][42] Swift became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.[43] Swift left RCA Records when she was 15—the company wanted her to record the work of other songwriters and wait until she was eighteen to release an album, but she felt ready to launch her career with her own material.[22][44] Swift later recalled: "I genuinely felt that I was running out of time. I wanted to capture these years of my life on an album while they still represented what I was going through."[45] She also parted ways with manager Dan Dymtrow, who later took legal action against Swift and her parents. In 2010, a judge nullified six of Dymtrow's legal claims. The remaining unjust-enrichment claim was settled out of court.[29][46][46]

At an industry showcase at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, a DreamWorks Records executive who was preparing to form his own independent record label, Big Machine Records. She became one of the label's first signings, with her father purchasing a three per cent stake in the fledgling company at an estimated cost of $120,000.[47][48] As an introduction to the country music business, Borchetta arranged for Swift to intern as an artist escort at the CMA Music Festival.[49]

Swift began working on her eponymous debut album shortly after signing her record deal. After experimenting with veteran Nashville producers, Swift persuaded Big Machine to hire her demo producer Nathan Chapman. It was his first time recording a studio album but Swift felt they had the right "chemistry."[22] Swift wrote three of the album's songs alone, including two singles, and co-wrote the remaining eight with writers including Rose, Robert Ellis Orrall and Angelo Petraglia.[50] Musically, the album has been described as "a mix of trad-country instruments and spry rock guitars."[51]

Taylor Swift was released on October 24, 2006. The New York Times described it as "a small masterpiece of pop-minded country, both wide-eyed and cynical, held together by Ms. Swift's firm, pleading voice."[52]The New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones described the sixteen-year-old Swift as a "prodigy." He noted that "Our Song" "stop[ped] me in my tracks" and praised the lyrics: "He's got a one-hand feel on the steering wheel, the other on my heart."[53]Rolling Stone described Swift as "bright-eyed but remarkably seasoned," and admired "Our Song"'s "insanely hooky sing-song melody that's as Britney as it is Patsy."[51]

Big Machine Records was still in its infancy upon the release of the lead single "Tim McGraw" in June 2006, and Swift and her mother helped "stuff the CD singles into envelopes to send to radio."[54] She spent much of 2006 promoting Taylor Swift in a radio tour and later commented, "Radio tours for most artists last six weeks. Mine lasted six months."[22] Swift baked cookies and painted canvases to gift to radio station programmers who played her music.[55] She made many television appearances, including on the Grand Ole Opry,[56]Good Morning America,[57] and TRL.[58] Swift, a self-described "kid of the internet," used Myspace to build a fanbase.[59] This was, at the time, "revolutionary in country music."[60] Borchetta has said that his decision to sign a 16-year-old singer-songwriter initially raised eyebrows among his record industry peers but Swift tapped into a previously unknown market: teenage girls who listen to country music.[60]

Swift toured extensively in support of Taylor Swift. In addition to her own material, Swift played covers of songs by Beyoncé, Rihanna, John Waite, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Eminem.[67][68][69] She conducted meet-and-greet sessions with fans before and after her concerts—these lasted for up to four hours.[70] As well as festival and theater dates, Swift performed as an opening act for several country artists' concert tours. In late 2006, she opened for Rascal Flatts on the final nine dates of their Me & My Gang Tour, after the previous supporting act Eric Church was fired.[57] Swift later sent Church her first gold record with a note: "Thanks for playing 'too long' and 'too loud' on the Flatts tour. I sincerely appreciate it. Taylor."[71] In 2007, she served as the opening act on twenty dates for George Strait's tour,[72] several dates on Kenny Chesney's Flip-Flop Summer Tour,[73] selected dates on Brad Paisley's Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour[74] and several dates for Tim McGraw and Hill's joint Soul2Soul II Tour.[75] Swift again opened for Rascal Flatts on their Still Feels Good Tour in 2008.[76]

Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008. Swift wrote seven of the album's songs alone, including two singles, and co-wrote the remaining six with songwriters Rose, John Rich, Colbie Caillat and Hillary Lindsey.[82] She co-produced the album with Nathan Chapman.[82] Musically, it has been said that the record is characterized by "loud, lean guitars and rousing choruses," with the occasional "bit of fiddle and banjo tucked into the mix."[83]

The New York Times described Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country's foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults."[84]The Village Voice felt she displayed "preternatural wisdom and inclusiveness," "masterfully avoiding the typical diarist's pitfalls of trite banality and pseudo-profound bullshit."[85]Rolling Stone described her as "a songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for verse-chorus-bridge architecture" whose "squirmingly intimate and true" songs seemed to be "literally ripped from a suburban girl's diary."[83] Music critic Robert Christgau characterized Swift as "an uncommonly-to-impossibly strong and gifted teenage girl."[86]

Swift, who now owned her own management company led by Robert Allen,[87][88] promoted Fearless heavily upon its release. An episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show was dedicated to the album launch and Swift appeared on many other chat shows.[60][89] She communicated with fans using social media platforms such as Twitter and personal video blogs and co-hosted the pre-show for the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.[60]

The lead single from the album, "Love Story", was released in September 2008 and became the second-best-selling country single of all time, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[90] Four more singles were released throughout 2008 and 2009: "White Horse", "You Belong with Me", "Fifteen" and "Fearless". "You Belong with Me" was the album's highest-charting single, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.[91]

The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 Album Chart with sales of 592,304, and has since sold over 8.6 million copies worldwide.[92] It was the top-selling album of 2009 and brought Swift much crossover success.[93]

Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless, a concert film, was aired on television and later released on DVD and Blu-ray.[98] Swift also performed as a supporting act for Keith Urban's Escape Together World Tour.[99] In addition to tour dates, the singer paid tribute to a number of fellow artists in televised performances. She performed a cover of Alan Jackson's "Drive" at the CMT Giants: Alan Jackson event, took part in a joint, televised concert with rock band Def Leppard in Nashville, and performed a cover of Strait's "Run" at a televised ACM event honoring Strait as the Artist of the Decade.[100] Swift sang her song "Fifteen" with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Grammy Awards and performed a self-penned rap skit with T-Pain at the CMT Awards.[101]

Swift became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music Award when "You Belong with Me" was named Best Female Video in 2009.[110] Her acceptance speech was interrupted by rapper Kanye West, who had been involved in a number of other award show incidents.[111] In the event's press room, Swift, a fan of West's music,[112] said that she did not have "any hard feelings" toward him.[113][114] The incident received much media attention and inspired many Internet memes.[115] A few days later, Swift told an interviewer that West offered her a personal apology, which she accepted: "He was very sincere."[110] She refused to discuss the incident in subsequent interviews so as not to make a "bigger deal" of it: "It happened on TV, so everybody saw what happened ... It's not something I feel like we need to keep talking about."[116] It has been said that the incident and subsequent media attention turned Swift into "a bona-fide mainstream celebrity."[117]

During the 2010 Grammy Awards ceremony, Swift sang "You Belong with Me" and "Rhiannon" with Stevie Nicks. Her vocal performance received negative reviews and sparked a widespread media backlash.[117][121] Her vocals were described variously as "badly off-key," "strikingly bad" and "incredibly wretched."[122][123] While The New York Times found it "refreshing to see someone so gifted make the occasional flub" and described Swift as "the most important new pop star of the past few years,"[120] music analyst Bob Lefsetz predicted that her career would end "overnight." He publicly appealed to Swift's father to hire a "crisis publicity agent" to manage the story because "Taylor's too young and dumb to understand the mistake she made."[124][125] Stevie Nicks, writing in Time, defended the singer:

Taylor reminds me of myself in her determination and her childlike nature. It's an innocence that's so special and so rare. This girl writes the songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John ... The female rock-'n'-roll-country-pop songwriter is back, and her name is Taylor Swift. And it's women like her who are going to save the music business.[126]

Fearless won many other accolades and has become the most-awarded album in country music history.[127] Swift became the youngest ever artist and one of only six women to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association.[128]Fearless also won the Association's Album of the Year award.[128] Swift was the youngest ever artist to win the Academy of Country Music's Album of the Year honor.[129] The American Music Awards honored Swift with Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album plaudits.[130] She was awarded the Hal David Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame[131] and was named Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association.[132]Billboard named her 2009's Artist of the Year.[133] Swift was included in Time '​s annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in 2010.[134]

Swift released her third studio album, Speak Now, on October 25, 2010. She wrote all 14 songs alone and co-produced the record with longtime collaborator Chapman.[135] Musically, it has been said that the album "expands beyond country-pop to border both alternative rock and dirty bubblegum pop."[136]

The New York Times described the album as savage, musically diverse and "excellent too, possibly her best."[135]The Village Voice remarked that the album demanded "a true appreciation of Swift's talent, which is not confessional, but dramatic: Like a procession of country songwriters before her, she creates characters and situations—some from life—and finds potent ways to describe them."[137] Music critic Robert Christgau found the album's songs "overlong and overworked" but remarked that "they evince an effort that bears a remarkable resemblance to care—that is, to caring in the best, broadest, and most emotional sense."[86]Rolling Stone described Swift as one of the best songwriters in "pop, rock or country": "Swift might be a clever Nashville pro who knows all the hitmaking tricks, but she's also a high-strung, hyper-romantic gal with a melodramatic streak the size of the Atchafalaya Swamp."[138]

The album's lead single, "Mine", was released in August 2010, and five further singles were released throughout 2010 and 2011: "Back to December", "Mean", "The Story of Us", "Sparks Fly" and "Ours".[143]Speak Now was a major commercial success, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. Its opening sales of 1,047,000 copies made it the 16th album in U.S. history to sell one million copies in a single week.[144] As of February 2012, Speak Now had sold over 5.7 million copies worldwide.[145][146]

Swift toured throughout 2011 and early 2012 in support of Speak Now. As part of the 13-month, 111-date world tour, Swift played seven shows in Asia, twelve shows in Europe, 80 shows in North America, and 12 shows in Oceania.[147]

At the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, Swift's song "Mean" won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance.[155] She also performed the song during the ceremony. Lefsetz, one of the most vocal critics of her 2010 Grammy performance, believes the song is addressed to him.[156][157] Lefsetz had previously been a supporter of the singer's career,[158] and Swift and Lefsetz had corresponded occasionally by email and telephone.[156]Time felt she "delivered her comeback on-key and with a vengeance"[159] while USA Today remarked that the criticism in 2010 seemed to have "made her a better songwriter and live performer."[160]

Swift won various other awards for Speak Now. She was named Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association in both 2010 and 2011.[161][162] She was named Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music in both 2011 and 2012,[163] and was named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association in 2011.[164] Swift was the American Music Awards's Artist of the Year in 2011, while Speak Now was named Favorite Country Album.[165]Billboard named Swift 2011's Woman of the Year.[166]

While Swift was completing her fourth album in the summer of 2012, Taylor invited her to appear as a special guest during his Tanglewood set—they performed "Fire and Rain", "Love Story" and "Ours" together.[167] Taylor, who first met Swift when she was 18, has said that, "we just hit it off. I loved her songs, and her presence on stage was so great."[168][169]

Musically, while there is experimentation with heartland rock, dubstep and dance-pop, it is "sprinkled among more recognisably Swiftian fare."[178][179] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times found Red "less detailed and more rushed than her usual fare"[180] but placed it at number two on his end-of-year list, characterizing it as the album on which Swift "stops pretending she's anything but a pop megastar, one with grown-up concerns, like how two bodies speak to each other and how taste in records can be a stand-in for moral turpitude."[181]The Times praised her "sublime" lyrics, particularly those on the "brooding" "All Too Well".[182]Rolling Stone enjoyed "watching Swift find her pony-footing on Great Songwriter Mountain. She often succeeds in joining the Joni/Carole King tradition of stark-relief emotional mapping ... Her self-discovery project is one of the best stories in pop."[183]

As part of the Red promotional campaign, representatives from 72 worldwide radio stations were flown to Nashville during release week for individual interviews with Swift.[184] She also appeared on many television chat shows and performed at award ceremonies in the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Australia.[185]

The album's lead single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", became Swift's first number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.[186] Six further singles were released: "Begin Again" (for country radio), "I Knew You Were Trouble", "22", "Everything Has Changed", "The Last Time" (all for pop and international radio) and "Red" (for country radio). Red debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1.21 million copies—this marked the highest opening sales in a decade and made Swift the first female to have two million-selling album openings.[187] As of May 2013, Red had sold over 6 million copies worldwide.[188] As of November 2012, she had sold in excess of 26 million albums and 75 million song downloads.[189]

Red did not win any Grammy Awards, but was nominated in a total of four categories. "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was a Record of the Year nominee at the 2013 Grammy Awards, while Red was an Album of the Year nominee at the 2014 Grammy Awards. Similarly, Swift's fourth album did not win any awards at the Country Music Association's annual ceremony. However, Swift was honored by the Association with a special Pinnacle Award for "unique" levels of success; Garth Brooks is the only other recipient. McGraw, Hill, Urban, Flatts, Strait and Brad Paisley presented Swift with the award, while Mick Jagger, Simon, Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Ethel Kennedy and Justin Timberlake recorded video messages. The New York Times considered it an attempt to persuade "country music's cash cow, its creative engine, its ambassador to the wider world" to remain within the genre[198] while The New Yorker wondered whether "it may have been the moment when Swift and the genre that helped steer her toward pop domination said goodbye."[199]

Swift won three MTV Europe Music Awards in 2012, including the honors for Best Female and Best Live Act.[200] "I Knew You Were Trouble" won Best Female Video at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.[201] She was named Best Female Country Artist at the 2012 American Music Awards and was named Artist of the Year at the 2013 ceremony.[202] The Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter/Artist Award went to Swift for the fifth and sixth consecutive years in 2012 and 2013.[203]

In the Red era, Swift's romantic life became the subject of intense media scrutiny. Gawker remarked that Swift had dated "every man in the universe."[204] The Westboro Baptist Church protested Swift's concerts, labelling her "the whorish face of doomed America," while Abercrombie & Fitch marketed a slogan T-shirt with a "slut-shaming" Swift reference.[205]The New York Times asserted that her "dating history has begun to stir what feels like the beginning of a backlash" and questioned whether Swift was in the midst of a "quarter-life crisis."[206]The Village Voice suggested that Swift's embrace of "traditional femininity" was the cause of the backlash: "She's young, she can be contentiously dramatic, she puts herself in the center of her stories, and obviously she's dated a lot of famous people in a relatively short amount of time. But none of that is exceptionally rare."[207]

The dating issue emerged at the 2013 Golden Globes award ceremony, where comediennes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler made a joke about Swift's serial-dating reputation, with Fey telling Swift to stay away from the son of Michael J. Fox.[208] Swift was later asked about the incident in a Vanity Fair profile: "I can laugh at myself [but it added to] everyone jumping on the bandwagon of 'Taylor dates too much.'" Elsewhere in the article, while discussing what the journalist describes as "the Golden Globes, and mean girls in general," Swift approvingly quoted Madeline Albright's remark that, "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."[209]

In July 2014, Swift wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, in which she discussed her perspectives on musicianship and its relation to the music industry.[210] "Shake It Off," the first official single from Swift's fifth studio album, 1989, was released on August 18, 2014, and she was announced as a contestant advisor for The Voice television show shortly afterward.[211]

For 1989, Swift wrote one song alone, and cowrote the remaining 12 with Antonoff, Martin, Shellback, Imogen Heap, Ryan Tedder and Ali Payami.[215]TIME magazine explained that, musically, the album is "driven by synths and drums in lieu of guitar."[216] Swift described 1989 as her first "official" pop release and parted ways with members of her longtime band, explaining in January 2015 that her decision to undertake a new direction was solely her own.[214][217][218][219]

As part of the 1989 promotional campaign in September, Swift invited fans to secret album-listening sessions, called the "1989 Secret Sessions," at her houses in New York, Nashville, Los Angeles and Rhode Island.[220] Her "expert" use of various social media platforms was remarked upon by industry analysts.[221] While in the UK to promote 1989, Swift performed a piano rendition of the song, "Riptide," by Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy, for BBC Radio 1's "Live Lounge" segment, which aired on October 9, 2014.[222]

Swift's fifth studio album, 1989, was released on October 27, 2014.[223] The critical response to 1989 was frequently positive, with TIME's Sam Lansky describing the album as a "paradigm shift."[216] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone remarked: "Deeply weird, feverishly emotional, wildly enthusiastic, 1989 sounds exactly like Taylor Swift, even when it sounds like nothing she's ever tried before."[224] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian praised the album's "Springsteenesque narratives of escape and the kind of doomed romantic fatalism in which 60s girl groups dealt … On 1989 the reasons she's afforded the kind of respect denied to her peers are abundantly obvious."[225]

1989 sold 1.287 million copies in its first week of U.S. release, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200, making Swift the first and only act to release three albums that sold more than one million copies in a week.[226] The second official single from the album, "Blank Space," was released on November 10, 2014.[227] The singles, "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space", both reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.[223]1989 later became the best-selling album of 2014, selling 3.66 million copies, despite only being on sale for nine weeks.[228] As of February 2015, 1989 had sold over 8.6 million copies worldwide, making swift the best selling artist in 2014.[229]

On November 3, 2014, Swift removed her entire catalog—with the exception of a single song—from Spotify, as she believed that the streaming service undervalues music.[230] On the same day,[231] details of The 1989 World Tour were announced—the tour will run from May to December 2015, visiting Japan, the U.S., Canada, the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Germany, Holland and Australia. Swift's primary support act for the tour is Joy, who will appear at North American, European and Australian shows. Shawn Mendes, singer-songwriter James Bay and Californian band HAIM were later announced as the support acts for select dates.[232][233][234][235][236]

Swift performed "Blank Space," as well as the 1989 track "Style," during the 2014 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in December 2014.[237] "Style" was then released as the third official single from 1989 on February 9, 2015.[238] By February 13, Billboard reported that the single was number 18 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart[239]

One of Swift's earliest musical memories is listening to her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay (née Moehlenkamp), sing at church.[12][240] In her youth, Finlay was a television host in Puerto Rico, and performed in operas in Thailand and Singapore.[5][241] As a very young child, Swift enjoyed Disney movie soundtracks: "My parents noticed that, once I had run out of words, I would just make up my own."[25][242] Later, her parents exposed her to artists such as James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel and Def Leppard.[243][244]

Swift has said she owes her confidence to her mother, who helped her prepare for class presentations as a child.[245] She also attributes her "fascination with writing and storytelling" to her mother.[246] Swift enjoyed both reading and writing poetry, and was particularly drawn to the works of Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss.[5][247] She remains interested "in any writing from a child's perspective" and has cited To Kill a Mockingbird as one of her favorite books.[55]

Swift was introduced to country music by "the great female country artists of the '90s ... Shania, Faith, the Dixie Chicks."[67][248] She was drawn to both the sound and storytelling of country music.[249] Twain, both as a songwriter and performer, was her biggest musical influence.[250] Hill was Swift's childhood role model and she told Billboard in 2011, "... when Faith Hill performed on an awards show, everything mattered—everything she said, did, wore, I tried to copy it."[251][252] Swift admired the Dixie Chicks's defiant attitude and their ability to play their own instruments.[5][253] The band's "Cowboy Take Me Away" was the first song Swift learned to play on the guitar.[254]

Swift lists Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson and Carly Simon as her career role models: "They've taken chances, but they've also been the same artist for their entire careers."[278][281][282] McCartney, both as a Beatle and a solo artist, makes Swift feel "as if I've been let into his heart and his mind": "Any musician could only dream of a legacy like that."[283] She admires Springsteen because he is "so musically relevant after such a long period of time."[284] She aspires to be like Harris as she grows older: "It's not about fame for her, it's about music."[285] Swift says of Kristofferson: "He shines in songwriting ... He's just one of those people who has been in this business for years but you can tell it hasn't chewed him up and spat him out."[286] She admires Simon's "songwriting and honesty": "She's known as an emotional person but a strong person."[287]

Thematically, The Guardian noted that Swift was "fantastically good at regarding teenage life with a kind of wistful, sepia-toned nostalgia" over the course of her first two albums.[288]New York Magazine remarked that few singer-songwriters have written "great records so explicitly about their teens ... Her nearest antecedent might be sixties-era Brian Wilson, the one true adolescent auteur before she came along."[289] Comparisons have also been drawn with Janis Ian.[281]

Fairytale imagery featured on Swift's second album, Fearless. She explored the disconnect "between fairy tales and the reality of love."[290][291] Her later albums address more adult relationships.[282] In addition to romance and love, Swift's songs have discussed parent-child relationships ("The Best Day", "Never Grow Up", "Ronan"), friendships ("Fifteen", "Breathe", "22", "Bad Blood"),[292][293] alienation ("The Outside", "A Place in This World", "Tied Together with a Smile", "Mean", "Shake It Off"), the paparazzi ("The Lucky One", "I Know Places"), and career ambitions ("Change", "Long Live").[294][295]

It has been said that Swift's defining quality as a songwriter is "a determination to register and hang onto fleeting feelings and impressions, a pre-emptive nostalgia for a present (and sometimes even a future) that she knows will some day be in the past."[296] Swift frequently includes "a tossed-off phrase to suggest large and serious things that won't fit in the song, things that enhance or subvert the surface narrative."[297]The New Yorker has said that her songs, "though they are not subversive, have a certain sophistication ... Sentimental songs are laced with intimations of future disillusionment."[298]

Structurally, Slate notes that Swift has "effortless, preternatural mastery of pop conventions: Very few songwriters can build better bridges than she does."[299]Rolling Stone described her as "a songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for verse-chorus-bridge architecture."[300]The Village Voice noted that Swift uses third-verse POV reversals frequently.[297]

In terms of imagery, a large degree of repetition is evident in Swift's songwriting. In the words of The Guardian, "she spends so much time kissin' in the rain that it seems a miracle she hasn't developed trenchfoot."[288] The writer added, "to Swift's credit, she explores new lyrical motifs over the course of [her fourth] album."[179]American Songwriter describes Swift as "a great songwriter, who writes with an unmatched and almost unnatural acuity ... Even her earliest material is characterized by thoughtful – perhaps meticulous – word choice and deliberate melodic construction, with nary a lazy rhyme or aimless tune to be found."[301][302] While reviews of Swift's work are "almost uniformly positive," The New Yorker has said she is generally portrayed "more as a skilled technician than as a Dylanesque visionary."[281]

"For a female to write about her feelings, and then be portrayed as some clingy, insane, desperate girlfriend in need of making you marry her and have kids with her, I think that's taking something that potentially should be celebrated – a woman writing about her feelings in a confessional way – that's taking it and turning it and twisting it into something that is frankly a little sexist."

Swift uses autobiographical detail in her work.[304] Listening to music as a child, she felt confused "when I knew something was going on in someone's personal life and they didn't address it in their music."[305]

The New York Times believes that "righting wrongs is Ms. Swift's raison d'être."[306] In her songs, Swift often addresses the "anonymous crushes of her high school years" and, more recently, fellow celebrities.[306] Mayer, the presumed subject of "Dear John", has said the song "humiliated" him: "I think it's kind of cheap songwriting. I know she's the biggest thing in the world, and I'm not trying to sink anybody's ship, but I think it's abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, 'Wait till he gets a load of this!'"[307]The Village Voice has downplayed this aspect of Swift's songwriting: "Being told What Songs Mean is like having a really pushy professor. And it imperils a true appreciation of Swift's talent, which is not confessional, but dramatic."[308]New York Magazine believes the media scrutiny over her decision to use autobiographical detail "is sexist, inasmuch as it's not asked of her male peers": "It's a relief to see Swift, the ur-nice-girl, refuse to give the mea culpa that many journalists she's talked to have sought."[309]

The singer herself has said that all her songs are not factual[310] and are often based on observations.[311] Aside from her liner note clues, Swift tries not to talk specifically about song subjects "because these are real people. You try to give insight as to where you were coming from as a writer without completely throwing somebody under the bus."[312] She lampooned herself while hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time in 2009—in a humorous song she wrote specifically for the episode, entitled "Monologue Song," Swift jokingly sings about the audience expectation that she would write a song about men who have "cheated" on her.[313] In 2014, Swift asserted that it is her personal policy to never use real names in her lyrics.[314]

Swift's music contains elements of pop, pop rock and country.[315][315][316] She self-identified as a country artist until the 2014 release of 1989, which she has described as a "sonically cohesive pop album."[317][318] Despite the pop direction of 1989, which the singer states was solely her decision and not influenced by anyone else,[217] Swift intends to record further country music albums in the future.[318]

Rolling Stone asserted that, "she might get played on the country station, but she's one of the few genuine rock stars we've got these days."[319]The New York Times noted that, "There isn't much in Ms. Swift's music to indicate country—a few banjo strums, a pair of cowboy boots worn onstage, a bedazzled guitar—but there's something in her winsome, vulnerable delivery that's unique to Nashville."[320]The New Yorker believes she is "considered part of Nashville's country-pop tradition only because she writes narrative songs with melodic clarity and dramatic shape—Nashville's stock-in-trade."[321]The Guardian has said that Swift "cranks melodies out with the pitiless efficiency of a Scandinavian pop factory."[288]

Swift's voice has been described as "sweet, but soft."[322] In studio recordings, the Los Angeles Times identifies Swift's "defining" vocal gesture as "the line that slides down like a contented sigh or up like a raised eyebrow, giving her beloved girl-time hits their air of easy intimacy."[136]Rolling Stone, in a Speak Now review, remarked: "Swift's voice is unaffected enough to mask how masterful she has become as a singer; she lowers her voice for the payoff lines in the classic mode of a shy girl trying to talk tough."[323] In another review of Speak Now, The Village Voice noted that her phrasing was previously "bland and muddled, but that's changed. She can still sound strained and thin, and often strays into a pitch that drives some people crazy; but she's learned how to make words sound like what they mean."[137]

In an interview with The New Yorker, Swift characterized herself primarily as a songwriter: "I write songs, and my voice is just a way to get those lyrics across."[4][329] Borchetta conceded in 2010 that Swift is "not the best technical singer," but described her as the "best communicator that we've got."[330] Swift's vocal presence is something that concerns her and she has "put a lot of work" into improving it.[331] It was reported in 2010 that she continues to take vocal lessons.[332][333] She has said that she only feels nervous performing "if I'm not sure what the audience thinks of me, like at award shows."[334]

Swift has high Q Score and Davie-Brown Index ratings, reflecting a high level of public awareness (90 percent) and popularity (80 percent) in the U.S.[335] The singer considers it her "responsibility" to be conscious of her influence on young fans.[336] A Rolling Stone journalist who profiled Swift in 2009 remarked upon her polite manners: "If this is Swift's game face, it must be tattooed on because it never drops."[55][337]

In 2012, Rolling Stone remarked upon Swift's "ease with glad-handing ... it's not hard to imagine her running for office someday"[338] while The Hollywood Reporter described her as "the Best People Person since Bill Clinton."[339] It has been said that she is "the kind of driven, intensely ambitious person who'd thrive regardless of her profession."[340] A 2012 Vogue cover story described Swift as "clever and funny and occasionally downright bawdy" in person.[341]Grantland describes Swift as "dorky" and "openly neurotic in a way you'd never see from a blonde country princess like Faith Hill or Carrie Underwood. She is more like Diane Keaton in Annie Hall: overly gracious and eager to please but full of a nonstop, nervous, fluttering energy."[342]

During the period surrounding the release of 1989, Swift further developed her use of social media to connect with her audience. In addition to the participation of 100 fans in the filming of the "Shake It Off" music video,[343] Swift sent Christmas gifts to a selection of fans by post and in person.[344] Swift also continued to assist fans who reached out to her on the Tumblr social media network at the start of 2015.[345]

In the early years of her career, Swift's signature look consisted of sundresses and cowboy boots.[346][347] This fashion style is still copied by many of the young fans who attend her concerts.[346][348] At formal events, Swift became known for "sparkly, beaded dresses."[346] Her naturally curly hairstyle is replicated by fans, and Swift has remarked: "I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It's just funny."[348] She was asked by Vogue to cut bangs for a cover shoot in late 2011, and now straightens her hair.[349]

Swift's work has received praise from veteran artists. Neil Young describes her as "a great writer": "I like Taylor Swift. I like listening to her. I kind of like watching her respond to all the attacks. I like the ways she's defining herself. So I keep my eye on it."[354][355]Stephen Stills defended Swift's confessional writing style:

How many times do people want to make fun of [her] for writing a song about getting dumped? I'm sorry, that's what you do as a songwriter ... Wear your heart on your sleeve, then just write about it. Fuck 'em. If I was young, I would be one of Taylor Swift's conquests because I would stalk her.[356][357][358]

James Taylor, who performed with Swift on two occasions, said that "we just hit it off. I loved her songs, and her presence on stage was so great."[168][169]Elvis Costello remarked: "I think she is quite interesting ... You can see a degree of self-possession there, and I'm intrigued by that."[359]Judy Collins points to Swift as an example of a current star who is continuing on the lineage of being an independent-minded artist.[360]

In regard to Swift, Kristofferson said that "she blows me away. It's amazing to me that someone so young is writing such great songs. She's got a great career ahead of her."[361][362]Janis Ian notes that Swift "changed the face of music, songwriting and guitar playing for girls ... There is an authenticity there."[363] Nicks believes Swift writes "songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John."[126] She remarked that the younger singer's "Today Was A Fairytale" has "stayed in my heart forever. And it just reminds me of me in a lot of ways."[364]

Jon Bon Jovi describes her as "the real deal in every way, shape and form. She's a writer, she's a singer, she's a beautiful girl ... Like, she's going to be around."[365] Parton is "extremely impressed with her, especially with her songwriting ... I'm real impressed with the depth of her sometimes. She's got the qualities that could last a long time."[366][367] Etheridge remarks: "I love her soul, her spirit. I think she's going to surprise people and I think she's going to be around for a long time."[368][369]

Swift has also received songwriting praise from contemporaries. Mayer was a supporter of Swift's early career—the duo recorded a duet and performed in concert together on two occasions: "You could put her in a time machine in any era and she would have a hit record."[370] She also received praise from Drake,[371] Tegan and Sara,[372][373]Grimes,[374]Kesha,[375] Katy Perry,[376] Kelly Clarkson[377] and Lady Gaga.[378]

Ryan Adams described her as one of the "most fucking amazing writers I’ve ever seen. I’ve sat in this room with her before and heard a song she was constructing on the spot and it was unbelievable. It was pure alchemy.”[379]Kathleen Hanna is "totally into Taylor Swift. I think she has super-clever lyrics, and I love that she writes her own music."[380]Shirley Manson remarked in February 2010 that Swift is "exceedingly talented at songwriting ... She drew her own door and walked right through it. We should applaud her balls for bucking the system. That's what artists are supposed to do."[381]Lena Dunham, the creator and star of HBO's television series Girls, has described Swift as her "artistic kindred spirit."[382]

Swift's artistic principles have progressively developed over the course of her career and have intermittently been publicized. In a July 2014 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Swift expressed her optimism in regard to the music industry, emphasizing the ongoing importance of albums, the increasing value of social media, and comparing a musician's relationship with fans to that of an intimate partnership.[210] Swift informs readers in the piece's introductory paragraphs:

... you should know that you're reading the opinion of an enthusiastic optimist: one of the few living souls in the music industry who still believes that the music industry is not dying … it's just coming alive. There are many (many) people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an economic entity. I am not one of them.[383]

According to Swift, full-length studio albums—as opposed to the singles that consumers can cherry-pick in online stores—continue to be "based on the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work." Swift acknowledges that "Piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically," but asserts that "people are still buying albums, but now they're buying just a few of them." Swift explains that consumers now only buy the albums that "hit them like an arrow through the heart or have made them feel strong or allowed them to feel like they really aren't alone in feeling so alone."[383]

Swift also urges artists, like the "young girls" she meets, to recognize their true worth, and hopes "they don’t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art." For Swift, "Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for." In terms of addressing the increasingly challenging market environment for musicians, Swift highlights the importance of social media—recounting her early MySpace campaigns—the element of surprise, and the need for artists to continually conceive of "inventive ways of keeping their audiences on their toes."[383][384] As part of her conclusion, Swift states:

This moment in music is so exciting because the creative avenues an artist can explore are limitless. In this moment in music, stepping out of your comfort zone is rewarded, and sonic evolution is not only accepted … it is celebrated. The only real risk is being too afraid to take a risk at all.[383]

On November 3, 2014, Swift removed her entire catalog—with the exception of a single song—from Spotify after the indications of her disapproval of the streaming business model emerged in the July 2014 op-ed. Furthermore, she had previously delayed the streaming of her 2012 album, Red. Spotify immediately launched a social media campaign to persuade Swift to return and, in a statement on its website, claimed that 16 million of over 40 million users had played her music in the preceding 30-day period.[230]

In mid-November, Swift's label head, Scott Borchetta said that Spotify paid Swift a total of $500,000 over the previous 12 months. Spotify responded to Borchetta, by clarifying that Swift had been paid $2 million for global streaming over the year-long time frame. Spotify further explained: "We [Spotify] paid Taylor [Swift]’s label and publisher roughly half a million dollars in the month before she took her catalog down".[230][385]

Musician Gene Simmons said in a December 2014 interview: "What Taylor Swift did is pretty smart. She knows who her fan base is. She took all her stuff off the downloading platforms because she says she isn't getting paid. Why should she work for free?"[386] Swift and Borchetta both told the media that their action with Spotify was intended to make an impact more broadly.[387] Swift later told the Telegraph's Mark Sutherland in February 2015 that she wasn't expecting the removal of her catalog to generate the attention that it did, but said: "If I have an opinion on something, I act accordingly—and I believe music is valuable."[388]

While promoting her fourth album Red, Swift offered exclusive album promotions through Target,[399]Papa John's Pizza[184] and Walgreens.[400] She became a spokesmodel for Diet Coke and Keds sneakers,[401] released her third Elizabeth Arden fragrance titled Taylor by Taylor Swift, and continued her partnerships with Sony Electronics and American Greetings. Swift also partnered with a number of companies during the Red Tour; AirAsia and Qantas acted as the official airlines for the Australian and Asian legs respectively, while Cornetto sponsored the Asian leg of the tour. While promoting 1989, Swift had tie-ins with Subway, Keds, Target and Diet Coke.[402] In 2014, Swift released her fourth fragrance Incredible Things.[403]

Swift made her acting debut in a 2009 episode of CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing a rebellious teenager.[404]The New York Times noted that the character allowed Swift to be "a little bit naughty, and credibly so".[405]Rolling Stone felt she "held her own" and "does a good job with the script"[406] while the Chicago Tribune said she "acquits herself well."[407] Later that year, Swift both hosted and performed as the musical guest for an episode of Saturday Night Live.[408]Entertainment Weekly described her as "this season's best Saturday Night Live host so far," noting that she "was always up for the challenge, seemed to be having fun, and helped the rest of the cast nail the punchlines". Proving "admirably resilient in a wide variety of sketch roles", she "inspired more of a female, girly-in-the-best-sense sensibility in SNL than it's shown since the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler days".[409]

Swift made her feature film acting debut in the 2010 ensemble comedy Valentine's Day, playing the ditzy girlfriend of a high school jock.[410] The Los Angeles Times felt the performance suggested "serious comedic potential"[411] while the San Francisco Chronicle found her "very funny".[412]Time remarked that Swift portrayed her character "rather charmingly".[413] However, Variety found her "entirely undirected... she needs to find a skilled director to tamp her down and channel her obviously abundant energy".[414] The Daily News described her performance as "painfully clunky" while Slant Magazine found her "unwatchable".[415][416] In 2012, Swift voiced Audrey, a tree lover, in the animated film The Lorax. In 2013, she made a brief cameo on the sitcom New Girl. In 2014, she had a supporting role in the film adaptation of The Giver.[417]

Swift is a supporter of arts education. In 2010, she donated $75,000 to Nashville's Hendersonville High School to help refurbish the school auditorium's sound and lighting systems.[424] In 2012, she pledged $4 million to fund the building of a new education center at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.[425] The 7,500-square-foot building opened in 2014 and will facilitate new programs and workshops for teenagers and senior citizens.[426][427] The space includes three classrooms and an exhibit space, and houses interactive activities such as a musical petting zoo and a "wet" classroom space to make concert posters and other art projects.[428] Museum officials named it The Taylor Swift Education Center and the singer is involved in an advisory capacity.[429] Also in 2012, Swift partnered with textbook rental company Chegg to donate $60,000 to the music departments of six US colleges.[430][431] In 2013, Swift donated $100,000 to the Nashville Symphony.[432]

Swift promotes children's literacy. In 2009, she donated $250,000 to various schools around the country that she had either attended or had other associations with. The money was used to buy books, fund educational programs and help pay teachers' salaries.[433] In 2010, she took part in a live webcast, Read Now! with Taylor Swift, broadcast exclusively in US schools to celebrate Scholastic's Read Every Day campaign.[434][435] In 2011, Swift donated 6,000 Scholastic books to Reading Public Library, Pennsylvania[436] and, in 2012, she donated 14,000 books to Nashville Public Library, Tennessee.[437] Most of the books were placed in circulation; the rest were given to children from low-income families, preschools and daycare centers.[437] In 2012, she co-chaired the National Education Association's Read Across America campaign and recorded a PSA encouraging children to read.[438] Also in 2012, Swift promoted the "power of reading" in a second live Scholastic webcast, broadcast directly to US classrooms.[439] In 2013, through the Reach Out and Read initiative, she donated 2,000 Scholastic books to the Reading Hospital Child Health Center's early literacy program.[440] In 2014, she appeared in a READ campaign[441] and took part in another Scholastic webcast, broadcast in US classrooms.[442] Also that year, she donated all proceeds from her song "Welcome to New York" to New York City Public Schools.[443]

Throughout her career, Swift has donated money for helping victims of natural disasters. In 2008, she donated the proceeds from her merchandise sales at the Country Music Festival to the Red Cross's disaster relief fund.[444] Later that year, she donated $100,000 to the Red Cross to help the victims of the Iowa flood of 2008.[445] In 2009, Swift supported the Victorian Bushfire Appeal by joining the lineup at Sydney's Sound Relief concert,[446] reportedly making the biggest contribution of any artist to the Australian Red Cross.[447] In 2010, she took part in the Hope for Haiti telethon; she performed and answered phone calls from viewers wishing to donate money.[448] She also recorded a song for the Hope for Haiti Now album.[449] In response to the May 2010 Tennessee floods, Swift donated $500,000 during a telethon hosted by WSMV.[450] Later that year, she donated $100,000 to help rebuild a playground in Hendersonville, Tennessee which was damaged by floodwater.[451] In 2011, Swift used the final dress rehearsal for the North American leg of her Speak Now tour as a benefit concert for victims of recent tornadoes in the United States, raising more than $750,000.[452] She also donated $250,000 to Alabama football coach Nick Saban's charity, Nick's Kids, to aid in the tornado relief efforts of West Alabama.[453] In 2012, Swift supported Architecture for Humanity's Restore the Shore MTV telethon in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.[454]

Swift opposes LGBT discrimination. Following the 2008 murder of Larry King, she recorded a Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network PSA to combat hate crimes.[455] On the first anniversary of King's death, Swift told Seventeen that her parents taught her "never to judge others based on whom they love, what color their skin is, or their religion."[456] In 2011, the music video for Swift's anti-bullying song "Mean" dealt in part with homophobia in high schools; the video was later nominated for an MTV VMA social activism award.[457][458][459]The New York Times believes she is part of "a new wave of young (and mostly straight) women who are providing the soundtrack for a generation of gay fans coming to terms with their identity in a time of turbulent and confusing cultural messages."[457]

Swift's main residence is a duplex penthouse in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City.[214][495] She disclosed her perception of New York City before she purchased the Tribeca penthouse in a September 2014 interview:

“

I was so intimidated by this city [New York City] for so long ... I thought I would never be able to make it here, because I wasn't something enough—bold enough, brave enough to take on this huge city in all of its blaring honesty. And then at a certain point I just thought, "I'm ready."[496]

”

In January 2015, Swift explained that her relocation to New York City was solely her decision and she was "very proud" of the autonomy that underpinned the change of residence.[217]

According to Forbes’s Celebrity 100 list, released annually in the month of May, Swift earned $18 million in 2009,[500] $45 million in 2010,[501] $45 million in 2011,[502] $57 million in 2012,[503] $55 million in 2013[504] and $64 million in 2014.[505]

In a January 28, 2015, interview with Access Hollywood, Swift explained that she had found happiness in being single again, as it signified a state of independence that was worth protecting. Swift mentioned that she felt "happy," "free" and "independent," and told the interviewer that "it's important to really explore" and "embrace" one's life when it "completes itself." She also advised people in their twenties that they should not "use other relationships as a band-aid if one doesn't work."[217]

Swift says she registered to vote on her 18th birthday.[520][521] During the 2008 presidential campaign, she supported the Every Woman Counts campaign, aimed at engaging women in the political process, and was one of many country stars to record a public service announcement for the Vote (For Your) Country campaign.[522] She stated: "I don't think it's my job to try and influence people which way they should vote."[5] Following President Obama's inauguration, she told Rolling Stone that she supported the president: "I've never seen this country so happy about a political decision in my entire time of being alive. I'm so glad this was my first election."[523]

In 2010, former U.S. President George H. W. Bush attended the taping of a Swift television special in Kennebunkport, Maine,[524] and later described Swift as "unspoiled" and "very nice."[525] In 2012, Swift was presented with a Kids' Choice Award in recognition of her charitable work by Michelle Obama, who praised her as someone who "has rocketed to the top of the music industry but still keeps her feet on the ground, someone who has shattered every expectation of what a 22-year-old can accomplish."[526] Swift later described the First Lady as "a role model."[527] In a 2012 interview, Swift remarked that, although she tries to keep herself "as educated and informed as possible," she doesn't "talk about politics because it might influence other people."[528] She has spoken of her interest in American history and has read books about Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, the Founding Fathers and Ellis Island.[529] Swift has spent time with the Kennedy family[530] and has spoken of her admiration for Ethel Kennedy.[531][532]

After 1989 passed the four-million-sales mark in the U.S. during the week ending January 18, 2015, Swift's total album-sales count in America was registered as 27.1 million. As of January 24, 2015, each of Swift's studio albums have sold at least four million units: Fearless (6.9 million), Taylor Swift (5.5 million), Speak Now (4.5 million), Red (4.1 million) and 1989.[550] By the start of 2015, Swift had sold over 40 million albums, 130 million single downloads and was one of the top five music artists with the highest worldwide digital sales.[229]